If you're a fan of carrot cake, then you'll LOVE these soft, sweet & nutty breakfast cookies! Make a big batch and freeze them for on-the-go treats.

For a while, I went through a frittata phase, then there was the chia bowl phase, followed by a bit of a smoothie kick… which brings us to my current morning trend: cookies for breakfast!

But before you think I’ve completely given up on myself, hear me out – I make these cookies with lots of good things – carrots, oats, flax, walnuts, pepitas, cranberries, and QUINOA. Yes, carrots and quinoa – it almost sounds like a salad, but I promise you these “healthier” cookies are so delicious and energizing in the morning. They’re also vegan, gluten-free, and sweetened with maple syrup instead of refined sugars. They’re about halfway in between a muffin and a cookie – big, hearty, and filling, but also sweet and nutty – they’re almost like eating carrot cake for breakfast!

Tips for Making This Breakfast Cookies Recipe

Let’s talk for a second about quinoa in cookies – I recommend that you use leftover quinoa here. I like to make a big batch of quinoa early in the week for easy toss-together lunches and dinners. Store your cooked quinoa in the fridge so that when you’re ready to bake these breakfast cookies, it’s ready for you.

If you haven’t baked with oat flour before – it’s so easy. No need to go shopping for fancy flours, just blend your oats in a food processor for about a minute, and you have oat flour. It’s gluten-free, but be sure to seek out certified gluten free oats if gluten is a problem for you.

Over here, my family is obsessed with these. They’re best straight out of the oven, but they also freeze incredibly well (hence, my 1 cookie per day breakfast obsession).

These vegan breakfast cookies make a great quick breakfast or healthy snack! Made with carrots, quinoa, and oats, they're naturally sweetened and gluten-free.

Author: Jeanine Donofrio

Recipe type: breakfast, snack

Serves: 12 large cookies

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour (made from 1¼ cups whole rolled oats)*

1 cup (additional) whole rolled oats* (see note)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup cooked quinoa

1 cup finely shredded carrots

2 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 5 tablespoons warm water

½ cup almond butter

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup nuts and/or seeds (I used walnuts + pepitas)

½ cup dried cranberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Use a food processor or a blender to process the 1¼ cups rolled oats into a fine flour and measure out one level cup. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, the remaining 1 cup whole oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sea salt. Fold in the quinoa and then the shredded carrots, stirring until the carrots are completely coated with flour.

In a small bowl, combine the flaxseed and warm water and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, and maple syrup and stir well to incorporate. Stir in the flaxseed mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and fold in just until combined. Stir in the walnuts, pepitas, and cranberries.

Scoop about ¼ cup of batter for each cookie onto the baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

When cookies are completely cool, they can be stored in an airtight container or frozen.

There are very good online nutrition counters. You just put in the ingredients and they deliver the nutritional breakdown. Caloriecount.com and others. Just google!
I would make the breakfast cookie in a savory version. On the premise that once you eat something sweet, you want something else sweet, we are trying to avoid all sugar until later in the day. Protein and complex carbs (which are sugars but which take a long time to metabolize) for breakfast.

These sound amazing! I also go through breakfast phases, and cookies for breakfast has been one of them. I was thinking it’d be good to throw quinoa in a recipe like that, and now you’ve gone and done it. Can’t wait to try these out!

These are a very worthwhile and satisfying way to use up nut butters! I used tahini, because that is what I had on hand, and replaced maple syrup with honey, coconut oil with walnutoil, and added cardamom in addition to cinnamon. I ground the carrot with the 11/4 cups of oats in food processor (lazy solution to avoid grating), and it worked really well.

Oh these cookies look and sound perfect Jeanine! Totally whipping these up for Scott and I next week. All about carrot everything in sweets lately! And could not be more excited for your beautiful book (!!!) XO

Okay Jeanine – I blame you!!! I thought, “Oh, I’ll give ’em a try..” and in one week I’ve made this recipe 4 times! I don’t see why these aren’t good for me, but eating as many as I am (I’ve been sharing with my staff) they have to be bad. My worst problem is that i keep eating the raw dough. Okay, but serious a couple of thoughts. I have never had all of the ingredients so I’ve made a ton of substitutions…different in each batch. I’ve been using millet instead of quinoa sometimes, and the nuts and fruit keep changing. You mention finely shredded carrots – how are you doing this? My box grater has a fine option but the carrots never work in it. So I just use the course holes which seems to work fine. But if there’s an easy way to get fine I’d like to try it. Thanks again – love these!

Hi Rob, (sorry for my slow reply! I somehow missed seeing your comment when it first came through). Wow, 4 times! I’m glad you like them and I’m glad they’ve worked with millet, etc. I use a mircoplane grater, (this kind: http://amzn.to/1MqofTr) which is sort of in between the 2 types of holes on a box grater. I’ve also pulsed them in my small food processor until they’re crushed up, which is quicker. Hope that helps!

I just made these and they are delicious!
Rob, I put a bunch of baby carrots in my ninja blender and gave them a whirl. The carrots chopped up great! (or should I say “grate”?!) I wasn’t sure if there’d be enough liquid for them to blend but they were fine. I was ready to add a little scoop of applesauce and the flax-and-water mix if needed for blending purposes but it wasn’t necessary.
This is also how I blended the oats — just measured in the 1.25 cup, blended up, and then measured the oat flour to be sure I had 1 cup as I poured it from the blender cup into the bowl. I used the ninja’s smaller add-on blender container to do this; I don’t know how it would work in a standard-size blender pitcher. The carrot results are probably smaller/finer than the grating version, but they measure/taste/cook the same.
I don’t have a food processor but I imagine that would make quick work of the carrots, too.
The recipe turned out great. I added a splash of vanilla and some golden raisins. I love pepitas but didn’t have any on hand so I used the walnuts and some hemp seeds. I also added a few pinches of chia seeds. The cookies were great out of the oven and I’m looking forward to trying them in the morning. 🙂

Danica

03.16.2016

These cookies are so so good! I made a batch a few days ago and they barely lasted 24 hours in my house.

I’ve been meaning to tell you that these have been my go-to breakfast during the past week of our renovation. I added some extra oats and skipped the baking (and leavening) and they make hella delicious no-bake oat bars. 😉 So excited for you guys and your cookbook! High fives, you two!

Well just made these and they are amazing. I ate 4 already! Trying to actually save these for breakfast, hah. I used oat bran instead of the 1 cup oat flour, and used 1/4 cup earth balance instead of coconut oil, everything else I left the same. The dough comes out very wet, I had wondered if I needed to add more oats, but they still baked really well! Thanks again for another flawless recipe

These are holy cow amazing. My 1 year old loved it. My husband said they could be a bit sweeter but they’re good. Then he ate 3 and I had to tell him to stop so that we’d actually have some for the week.
Thx for a great recipe.

So update to this question – my kid started at a school that doesn’t allow nuts. If I swap the almond butter for sunflower butter that’s fine but instead of walnuts and large sunflower seeds (that she doesn’t like), what could I use?

Hi Sarah, I don’t really think there’s a good swap for the texture of nuts, you could try leaving them out? Although, note that when you combine sunflower butter with carrots there’s a funny (although not unsafe) chemical reaction that makes these cookies turn green.

I have a great pumpkin cookie recipe that I’m going to post very soon that’s similar to this one but nut-free. I think that one will be great for lunch boxes, stay tuned 🙂

These are really good and make me feel so much better about the out-the-door breakfast that my teenagers usually have. They bake up really nicely. I like that they don’t spread, but rather stay mounded in the oven. I’m not accustomed to cooking gluten free, and have one question. The baked product is a little softer than I would like. Would adding some portion of coconut flour help? I read today’s post about the raspberry scones and your comment that coconut flour absorbs moisture and helps to make the scones dense but not dry. What do you think about that addition to the breakfast cookies and how would you do it?

Hi Jennifer, glad your teenagers have been liking them! They’re supposed to be soft cookies – with this many oats and carrots, they’re not going to get crispy. That being said, to get a little crispness on the outside, you can either bake them a little longer or toast them in the oven on the second day until the outside has a crisper texture. I wouldn’t suggest using coconut flour for this one, I think it would make them a little too dry and/or might make them fall apart.

These were really tasty! I think I will add more spice next time because I like a lot of cinnamon and doubling wasn’t enough 🙂 Also they get really soft and crumbly after storing so they become a great yogurt or ice cream topping 🙂

They are simply great! I tried with butter of different nuts and it works out well. Baked walnuts give something really special for my taste. These cookies are perfect for a mid day snack. Thank you. Many other good recepies on your blog.

I just found this recipe while exploring you blog (I go through it whenever I’m in need for a recipe, it’s perfect:) ) and going to try these today! I’ve been looking for a breakfast cookie for a while and I have all the ingredients. Wish me luck!

I usually never post comments on recipes that I make from websites but I really wanted to let you know how much I love this Genius recipe. Ever since you posted it I have made it twice a month and bring two to work each day for breakfast. I have to portion it everyday or else I’ll end up eating the entire batch in one sitting.

For any future bakers out there that want to deviate from/experiment with the recipe I just wanted to share my tips/substitutions with you/them!

1) Perfectly okay to substitute shredded carrots with shredded beets! I did not notice a flavor/color difference. I also shred them with a regular cheese grater (comes out bigger, but doesn’t bother me in the finished product!)

2) I never used almond butter for this recipe. I have used natural (no salt) peanut butter and tahini/sesesame paste. As a PB love the flavor is definitely noticeable.

3) I have substituted maple syrup for (local) honey, and I prefer the sweetness of the maple syrup (more pronounced in sweetness and flavor) for this recipe. If anyone wants a subtle sweetness with no pronounced flavor, try using golden blossom honey (not the “honey bear” honey).

4) I have never used cranberries (never on hand) and have substituted it with currants (my go-to instead of raisins). Always delicious.

5) Pepitas/Pumpkin Seeds really do add to the flavor and a great texture. I always toast the nuts in a toaster over for 15 min @ 350F and let them cool before adding to the “batter”

I love the taste of the cookies. Unfortunately they aren’t as hard as they should be even after 25 minutes in the oven. I substituted the coconut oil and the almond butter with magarine. Any tips on how to make their texture more steady?

I made these yesterday and they are very tasty! One question though – I left them out in a ziplock bag overnight and this morning something in them had turned green. They still taste fine and I don’t see how they could have developed mold overnight, right? Does the flaxseed change color? I followed the recipe, except added sugar instead of maple syrup, and sunflower butter instead of almond butter. Any ideas?

Hi Emily – a few comments up someone else had this issue – it’s not mold (they’re safe to eat) but check out this link: http://www.thekitchn.com/food-science-when-good-carrots-52210. Apparently carrots can have this reaction with baking soda and sunflower seeds. If you use almond butter, they shouldn’t discolor.

I’m sorry, but this recipe is terrible!
How healthy can a recipe be when you eat half of the batch???!! Lol!
These are surprisingly additicting! And it’s nice to know I’m getting some good stuff in while nursing my 6 month old. Also, my 2 year old loves them too!!
The only change I made was using LIVfit superfood blend in place of the flaxmeals because I had none(I know, I live under a rock). And my food processor made quick work of those carrots!
Thank you for sharing this!! I’ll be coming making thus again and again and again!!

These are so amazingly delicious! I made them for my daughter who is gluten and dairy free. She loved them, as did the rest of the family!! I used peanut butter instead of almond butter b/c it was what I had on hand. Also, did need to cook them longer than recipe stated to get them firm, but hardly a problem. My daughter is begging me to make these again. Thanks for a great recipe!

Made these last night for the first time. Very yummy and not too sweet. I used normal butter (melted) instead of almond butter so not vegan but like the idea of trying peanut butter or tahini next time. They tasted even better after a night in the fridge.
I had to convert the American cups into metric measurements so it took a bit of time and I’m sure I was very approximate on quantities but it seemed to work.
Love the idea of oat flour from oat flakes – I had no idea it was so simple!

Made these today and my 6 year old son decided he couldn’t wait for breakfast and had one for dessert. They are a big hit, thank you!!! He’s looking forward to a Decafe Nespresso with the Hazelnut Milk in the morning to go with his breakfast cookie 🙂

First of all, this is NOT my kind of cookie. And yet, I was drawn to the recipe over and over since its post. So, I made them today. Holy mother of deliciousness, they are GREAT!! The only sub I made was to use sprouted watermelon seeds in place of pepitas. I did bake them longer than specified, perhaps another 15 minutes for crispy edges and then cranked it to 375 for another 5 minutes. Outsides crispy, still soft-ish in the centre. Just the right amount of sweetness for my taste. I’ve never been happier to be wrong. Extra quinoa in the fridge so I see another bake in the near future. Thank you so much!

Hi, I made these and the texture is very crumbly when you bite into it. They fall apart. I made them as the recipe states, baking 18 minutes and using dried cherries and pepitas for the fruit but combo. Any ideas? Should inhale them longer?

Hi, I’m just wondering how exactly you are cooking your quinoa for this recipe and if you could specify, it might help as it could have some impact on the texture (crumbly vs VERY crumbly) of the cookie that some people are experiencing. Personally, when I cook my quinoa for salads, etc., I use a 1:1 ratio of Water to quinoa so that my grains come out separate vs more on the mushy side. However, for this recipe, I’m guessing you want it more mushy so that everything binds together and hence are probably using what many folks do, a 2:1 ratio of 2 cups water to one of quinoa. Could you please clarify? Thank you. P.S. Since my previous post I have made three double batches of these cookies. Love!

Made these to the recipe, and they are a hit with the whole family. Only change I would make next time is to omit the chunky things – cranberries (as the cookies are on the crumbly side anything big in them just encourages them to break up, also my son thought cranberries baked were ‘too chewy”) and chopped nuts. I think keeping the mix finer (seeds, finely chopped nuts) will make them bond better. I might try doing a thumbprint of jam in the centre next time. Brilliant recipe, thank you!

These cookies are so delicious!! Even my toddler loves them! One issue I had was that they fall apart very quickly in little hands, would it be possible to add eggs to these? Could I add an egg in addition to the flax, or do I need to remove the flax?

I’m so glad your toddler loves them! I haven’t tried these with an egg so I can’t say for sure for sure, but I’d skip the flax + water and use 1 large egg instead. And/or, try baking them a little longer – closer to the 18 minute mark and see if that does the trick.

Made them today and I couldn’t stop licking the bowl before they went into the oven. That’s when I knew that they gonna be amazing and they are! Absolutely love them. So delicious and sweet. Might make them less sweet by adding less maple syrup next time, cause the carrots and almond butter add a bit of sweetness as well. I used canola oil instead of coconut oil and left out the cranberries and seeds, due to a fussy little one at home. But I’m sure she’ll love them as much as I do.